Q1. The speaker started by referring to the comment made by her American friend - "Wow! Really? But you have no accent!" when he/she found out that the speaker is from Singapore and not California. How does this comment reflect his/her perception of 'accents'?
In my opinion, I think that the speaker's American friend has a perception of 'accents', which actually refers to any other accent except the American accent. Perhaps it is because the American accent is so much a part of his/her life that it becomes a normal way of speech and everyone who does not conform to the American 'accent' is an oddity and therefore has an 'accent'. I think this is also true for most people. For example, in Singapore when we listen to someone talk in English without the Singaporean slang, we perceive that person as outside the norm and having an accent. :P
Please comment! :D
Amy
13AO1E
I have a slightly differing view. What accent a person has is based on how that person chooses to pronounce his/her words. Geographical location tends to affect this however, thus we have the varieties of English that we hear today. However, it is technically impossible for a person to have no accent, so I believe that it is more likely that people misunderstand what the concept of an "accent" is.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't too far of a guess when we're struggling with the same terms too as Linguistics students :P
Hey :) Thanks for posting up the video.
ReplyDeleteI think both of you have a point and your points actually make sense together. It could be because of the various norms that people are so used to, as Amy raised, that causes the misunderstanding of the word "accent", as Clarence raised.
My first thought after watching the video was that what people perceive as accents are subjective, depending on their cultural context. When the spoken English that people hear is recognisably different from the norm they are used to in their society, they consider it as an accent. Thus, Singaporean's perceive American's spoken English to have an accent whereas American's perceive Singaporean's spoken English to have an accent. There is no universal standard for spoken English with no accent as it varies based on the local context. In my perspective, this means that when the speaker's friend said that she has "no accent", it just means that the speaker's spoken English matches that of the majority in that context, rather than that she has no accent in her speech.
- Jessie (13S05B)
I agree with all of you. Ruby's American friend's comment reveals that she considers any accent other than the American accent to be an "accent". This implies that she considers the American accent to be the basilect (do forgive me if I have confused "accent" and "basilect") or the norm, and thus disregards the American accent as an "accent" or considers it "no accent". She instead views non-American accents or accents foreign to her, like the Singaporean accent, as "accents".
ReplyDeleteRoanna
13S03H
Hi everyone! Actually when I first watched the video, I thought that her American friend's comment about her having "no accent" was saying that she has no Singaporean accent so it's not really that she perceives the American accent being the norm, but rather that she was surprised that Ruby doesn't speak like how one would expect a typical Singaporean to speak. But yes, I agree that people would view someone having an 'accent' as speaking with an intonation (or even using words) different from the norm of the setting that they are in, and that Ruby's friend may be saying that she doesn't have an accent because she speaks like an American.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that Ruby Pan's American friend would have reacted rather quickly to Ruby Pan's comment about being from Singapore and this would lead me to believe that the American had relied on her stereotype of Singaporeans to judge Ruby Pan's lack of an accent. The American's mental process might have been as such: Singaporean --> Asian -->Weird Asian accent --> comparing Ruby Pan's accent with the Weird Asian Accent --> Ruby Pan has "no accent". The friend's perception has most likely been affected by the media's portrayal of Asians' heavy and comical accent.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cheryl that Ruby Pan's American friend said she had "no accent" in reference to how she did not speak with the typical Singaporean accent, not because her friend thought the American accent to be the standard norm and therefore not an accent. I think that most people today are able to identify not only the accents of others, but also their own. While they can point to a foreign accent and say, "that's an American accent" or "that's a British accent", they are also able to acknowledge that they themselves have their own unique accent. The world is small enough that we have enough knowledge about the various accents that English is spoken in, and we are able to recognise that our form of spoken English may not necessarily be the norm with "no accent". Despite the fact that we all live in social contexts where everyone around us speaks in the same way, we are not completely clueless as to how others speak and how others view our accents. I imagine that with how globalised the world is today, people are able to recognise that there is no such thing as not having an accent, because the term "accent" is simply used to differentiate the various English speech patterns in different social groups. They are also able to grasp that there is no actual standard way of speaking English.
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the points stated above, in that having an accent (from her friend's point of view) is speaking in a way other than the American way; and also that more often than not, people tend to misunderstand the true definition of 'accent'. I especially agree with Cheryl's point - she probably had the assumption that all Singaporeans speak with the 'Singlish accent' and 'not having an accent' was directed to her not speaking like how a Singaporean should speak.
I think her comment very well reflects many of our perception of the word 'accent' too. In the sense that we often view every other nation's way of speaking as accents but the (Singaporean) way we speak is simply no accent at all. This has occurred so much so that 'accent' has become relative.
I agree with Cheryl that when Ruby's American friend comments that she has 'no accent', she was referring to Ruby's lack of a Singaporean accent rather than the American accent being 'no accent'. She perceives Singaporeans to have a Singaporean accent, and thus expected Ruby to have a Singaporean accent just like other Singaporeans.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cheryl and Shimei with the point that she claimed the speaker had no accent because she did not speak in a Singaporean accent or make use of Singlish !This shows that the speaker has the perception and generally assumes that if someone came from a particular region they would have have the 'accent' of the people living there and would only speak in that particular accent. This was the reason for her surprise when the speaker did not speak in a Singaporean way.
ReplyDelete...woah everyone's so formal
ReplyDeletehello!! mm yes I think her friend meant that she didn't have a singaporean accent (read: english with singlish intonations) but it brings up an interesting point- is it possible for words to be spoken completely devoid of any accent at all, is there an objective standard where words can be spoken without an accent?
I think if we take the notion of the accent to be a particular predictable way of speaking that is characterized by its geographical origins then yes, it's possible to speak without the common accent- meaning speaking independently of how everyone else around you is speaking. but I dont think its possible to be speaking without an accent AT ALL because pronunciation and verbal nuances are highly subjective and pretty much all forms fall into the predictions of one accent or another.